Cynopsis at Cannes Lions: Day Three

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Yesterday was hump day at Lions, and it seemed there wasn’t enough coffee in the world for its participants, after a night of fireworks, late-night dinners and parties on yachts. But the innovations in advertising plug on, and Cynopsis held court by the entertainment stage to find out how brands can effectively send a message through film and television, how NBC is using social media to engage a new generation of Olympic viewers and how innovative TV can drive the cultural conversation. Then we hit the streets to find out what people are getting out of their time on the French Riviera.

QUICK TAKES FROM CANNES

Lucas Herscovici, global marketing VP of consumer connections, insights and innovation at Anheuser-Busch InBev dropped in on a blockchain session to talk about the company’s decision to be the first to launch a global ad campaign using blockchain. “This, we believe, is the future of what mobile advertising should be,” he said. “We partnered with Kiip a few months ago, leveraging Kiip’s platform to be able to target ads in different moments, and then using blockchain technology to be able to get the results in a more transparent way. Any [data] that we would have gathered before, where we’d have to rely on dashboards from a third party who can tweak the results along the campaign, we now have access to. Now we go directly to the raw data, it’s 100 percent transparent, and we eliminate the middleman. This is one more step toward being more direct and making sure that every dollar we spend is spent in the best way, and that we know how it’s performing.”

“A lot of people with marketing degrees have been taught the brand has to be the hero,” said Rupert Maconick, founder of Saville Productions, in a panel about how brands can benefit from connecting with filmmakers. “The truth is, a four-minute film all about brand is pretty boring.” Maconick discussed the documentary Lo and Behold from Werner Herzog, as an example of what long-form content can do for a brand. “What we found is, if you bring in iconic filmmakers, they’re generally going to make something good. And all the platforms like Netflix and Amazon are tracking those directors and want to get their next project. Once you sell it there is no media cost, no talent cost. There’s a lot of financial benefits.” While NetScout, which sponsored the film, knew the documentary would not be focused solely on their brand, they understood that they would benefit from being heavily involved in the promotional campaign, Maconick said, noting: “A doc by definition has to be authentic. If it doesn’t feel authentic the audience will feel conned, like it’s just a long ad.” That, however, appears to be somewhat of a sticking point on the brand side. “Brands have a complex set of priorities,” said Yogiraj Graham, global director, intel creative content labs, at Agency Inside. “They need to chain the story to a business objective and they need to measure ROI. You want your work to be effective.”

Exec producer of The Handmaid’s Tale, Warren Littlefield, and stand-up comedian Ramy Youssef, soon to be star of his own show on Hulu, sat down to discuss how success is measured on television, beyond just ratings. As a prolific producer, Littlefield knew Friends and Seinfeld were hits, he said, when he saw people in the supermarket re-enacting scenes. Same with Will & Grace, when Vice President Joe Biden credited the show for shifting public perception on gay marriage. But the success of Handmaid, he said, came from a far less optimistic place. “It turns out that women in our society today feel like second class citizens, they’re mistreated and they related in a powerful to the thematic that Margaret Atwood created,” he said. “Reluctantly, we give a nod to Trump, because it feels like we’re in a pre-Gilead world where human rights and women’s rights are being stripped away.” Youssef, a first-generation American Muslim, said he wants to bring a Muslim family with its complications to TV, not the people you see through the usual lens of terrorism or victimhood. “No, we’re just as racist as everybody else,” he joked. “And we need to talk about that. I’ll tell you how many Arabs voted for Trump. We’re used to dictators.” Youssef says he knows he’s made it, “when one of my dad’s friend says they like it,” he says. “Hopefully it will be reaching not just our circles, but somebody outside it.” As creators of television, Littlefield said, “We’re vision seekers. We don’t have to have vision, but when it’s in front of us we have to recognize it, support it and turn it loose.”

Adam Rippon, the first openly gay athlete to compete in the Olympics, wants to be the new face of what the boy next door looks like. “I feel like I’m typically not the American boy that was, but I think that right now I’m trying to make that a newer face. This face,” he said at a panel about NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. When it comes to finding the right sponsor, Rippon said he’s found being honest and genuine works best for him. “I think that you want to keep your image consistent and I think a lot of companies feel like they gravitate towards people that they feel fit that image,” he said. “If what you’re saying is too much on social media, an advertiser might not align themselves with that. It’s a perfect way to weed out people that wouldn’t be a good fit for you anyway. If it’s something I can find the passion and love for I can be a great ambassador. If it’s just for the money, everybody can tell.”

Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising and client partnerships at NBCUniversal, said NBCU has created partnerships with Snapchat, Twitter and Buzzfeed and embraced the capability of having a live setting in which to develop and nurture new generations of Olympic fans. “We tease that NBC has a commitment to the Olympics until 2032; the gold medalists then are just toddlers or haven’t been born. We’re partnering with these social platforms to get the word out to new generations,” she said, also noting she believes in 2032 advertising will look completely different. “It will be a lot less ads but ads that make more sense, or specifically stories that showcase these amazing people,” she said. “It will be a lot more specific to the program we’re watching.”

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CADENT

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Q&A WITH PAUL ALFIERI, CADENT CMO

Paul Alfieri, CMO of Cadent, looks forward to Cannes Lions because while the world is rapidly moving toward automation, this is the one place you still get to meet and talk to actual people, he said. “It still has that very personal component. We are still marketing to human beings. This isn’t my machine calls your machine. I think in marketing, if you forget the humanity part of the story, you lose.”

Why is data important?

Data and targeting can get you closer to that person, meaning find a window in their life with the most relevant time for you to have communication. But it’s like a pickup line—you can still blow it with the wrong pickup line. Cannes is great because we probably spend 11 months out of the year talking about technology and data, so to spend two weeks looking at work and talking about creativity and human beings I think is really, really important for the profession.

Can you explain the ad eco system to me like I’m your mother?

There are groups of companies that innovate using technology and data and the Internet to make advertising work in an era where people aren’t just watching TV or listening to the radio or reading magazines. The challenge for an advertiser is when their target audience is fragmented. It used to be really easy, we could just put a Super Bowl ad in front of you. Now there’s a lot of companies who are innovating using technology and data and lots of other things to try to stitch together a Super Bowl-sized audience to your Apple TV and your iPad and your iPhone and your computer.

Do you feel like we’re getting to a point where there are no boundaries between TV and print and digital?

If you’re watching a show on a 60-inch flat panel TV, the commercial I would want to show you would be very different than if you’re watching it on a 5-inch phone screen. In that way I think there’s always going to be, maybe not barriers, but different capabilities of each of the mediums that can be exploited in the best way possible to deliver your message.

But since the audience is fragmented across all of those different device types, if you’re a marketer, you want to have some consistency to your message. In order to get the consistency, marketers are taking to data that unifies the definition of audience between TV and video and the Internet and social and so forth and so I think that’s where the innovation is happening is in bringing things together.

Why is a transparent TV ad ecosystem good for the entire TV industry?

I think what’s interesting about where we are today with data and targeting is that an advertiser really can define their audience in the way they want to define their audience: “I know that my buyer is this type of person.” The challenge is if I can only use that definition in one medium or say on one specific network on TV, it doesn’t do me any good. Being able to push that definition into lots of different mediums is key for the success of my campaign. We need an ecosystem that can exchange and translate all the different buyer definitions of audience.

Is there still romance in TV advertising?

Always. Most people go into advertising because they want to do a 30-second spot. I think the challenge with it is you can’t get blinded by the romance and you also have to recognize where your targets are as a marketer and make sure that your romancing in the right location and that means that the 30-second spot that I run today is going to have different impact on the market than the 30-second spot run 20 years ago. And that doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just different.

What excites you about the future of advertising?

What excites me as a marketer now is that we’re moving to an era where the proxy is eliminated, so I can actually know and understand my audience. Not a subset of my audience, not a panel of my audience, not a section of my audience. I can know and understand in real time what’s going on with my audience. Meaning how is my brand followed by them? Are they in market for my product at this point? Where are they going for more information? We’re at this point now where we can tell you within a day if somebody saw the ad and bought a car. It’s unheard of.

HEARD ON THE STREETS: TRUTH FROM THE MOUTHS OF LIONS

“Blockchain is when different computers speak to each other and they make something happen at the end.” – inside the Palais.

“I feel really frustrated with the industry, because I feel it’s all talk and no action. There’s far too much strategy and nothing ever comes of it. It’s good that people are trying to move forward, but we should have done this 20 years ago. I find the conversations archaic.” – female brand account executive.

“As a black woman, when I walk on the Croisette, I feel like I don’t belong here. This year, I see a few more faces, but last year it would literally be one other person. It’s improved, but you know you’re different.” – account manager.

“All this brand purpose shit… what does it even mean? People just need to do the right thing.” – chief marketing officer.

“How would I explain blockchain to my mother? I have no idea what you’re talking about.” -Cannes resident.

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